JOHN KERRY: USA WILL SUPPORT MOLDOVA ON ITS EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PATH

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the goal of his short visit to Moldova on December 4 was to support Moldova on its European integration path.

John Kerry was speaking at a meeting with representatives of the Moldovan winemaking sector at the famous Cricova wine cellars on Wednesday night. The event was broadcast live by two Moldovan TV channels.

"I am here today for a larger purpose. I am here to congratulate the people of Moldova for initialing an Association Agreement and a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU at the [Eastern Partnership] summit in Vilnius last week and to pledge US support to you as you will finalize this agreement during the next year", John Kerry said.

"The USA deeply believes that European integration is the best guarantee for both security and prosperity of Moldova. The EU has offered Moldova a historic opportunity to be able to cement a European future for its people and you have seized that opportunity", Kerry stressed.

He also expressed confidence that "Moldova's commitment to reform is going to encourage and inspire greater investment and greater confidence from financial institutions".

"Moldova maybe a landlocked nation but there is no way that its potential or its future is locked in to only one place or to only one relationship", Kerry said, noting that Moldova has the right to define its future.

In the context of the recent developments in Ukraine, the US official said: "For the people of Ukraine we say the same thing. You too deserve the opportunity to choose your own future."

In his opinion, Moldova has today an "opportunity to be able to shape its future with partners in Europe and across the world".

"This nation's future can really be defined by the strength of its connections which reach out to a dynamic continent as well as providing Moldova with a diverse and pluralistic set of options in the world", Kerry said.

John Kerry noted that the USA has already provided Moldova with "some 1.1 billion dollars in support of its democracy, prosperity, security and rule of law".

"This year we provided some 22 million dollars to help to implement the association agreement and the free trade agreement. This includes about 4.4 million dollars for peace and security programs, about 10.8 million dollars to support democracy, good governance and rule of law", the US official noted.

John Kerry also said that the USA will continue to provide Moldova with assistance to help it increase its energy security.

John Kerry praised the Moldovan winemakers, saying that even the US specialists have what to learn from them. He promised that the USA will continue supporting Moldova's wine sector since this is an important sector of its economy. He added that the USA will organize a special mission of Moldovan winemakers to the USA to study the experience of their American colleagues and to discuss possibilities of increasing exports to the US market.

Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca and State Secretary John Kerry raised glasses of Moldovan wine to the development of partnership between the Republic of Moldova and the United States.

The high American guest received from the Moldovan premier a gift – an oak casket richly carved in Moldovan national style, with 4 bottles in it representing the main spectrum of Moldovan wines and brandies – 2 bottles of vintage wines, a bottle of elite sparkling wine and a bottle of vintage brandy.

Also, the Cricova company administration has allocated in the Cricova cellars a special, personal niche with over 500 bottles of vintage red wines, which will now be called John Kerry niche. And Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov gave John Kerry a 3-liter bottle of excellent wine of the 2007 vintage.